The renowned New York based travel magazine, Travel + Leisure has adjudged Kumarakom Lake Resort as one of the best hotels in the world for 2010.

In a compilation that declares the world’s top hotels from across all regions, Kumarakom Lake Resort is the only property from Kerala to be featured on the list which includes 14 Indian properties in all. The list, an annual feature published by the magazine since 1995, is based on reader votes.

Kumarakom Lake Resort is a luxury heritage hideaway set by the famed backwaters of Kerala. A part of the unique ecosystem that thrives by the historic Lake Vembanad, Kumarakom Lake Resort is especially noted for its efforts in preserving a slice of history. The retreat’s 59 luxury rooms and heritage villas have been assembled from age-old tenets of traditional architecture. Restoring several ancient homesteads in its originality, every part of the resort resonates with Kerala’s ancient architecture. The resort’s multi-cuisine restaurant, the Ettukettu, an eight sided mansion that once belonged to Kerala’s nobility, had been dismantled from its original location and restored at the resort in all it’s magnificence. The Ayurvedic Centre, Ayurmana, is of a similar vintage and was once the home of a family of Ayurveda practitioners. Vembanad, the seafood restaurant and bar is set on the sunset side of the resort, facing the lake’s pristine waters. But what sets the resort apart is the touch of luxury spread across its entirety.

Travel + Leisure singles out the traditional details like “wooden gables, carved doors, massive brass locks” for praise as well as the “spicy curries” and recommends the resort’s “Heritage lake-view villas with private pools”

As Travel + Leisure states, hotels are often the keys to a destination and Kumarakom Lake Resort undoubtedly embodies traditional Kerala in all its glory.

Launched in 1937, Travel + Leisure is published across the globe and is a leading travel magazine in America, Australia, South and Southeast Asia.